Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank colleagues. Deputies Shortall and Murphy must be particularly delighted in their decision to retire. theyhave united the House in a very rare moment, which may prove to be another historic moment in their trailblazing careers. Again, on behalf of the Government, we wish them very well.

There were a range of issues. Of course, they can all be considered in the context of the Business Committee. We had a discussion last week about how the Business Committee does go through a process, which we need not go through again here every week, although, obviously, Members have a right to raise it.

To Deputy McDonald's point, I think we all welcome the Labour Court intervention. As I outlined in my earlier answer, a lot of work has been done by ihe court and by the parties to get to this point, including talks that went on, I think, until about 11 o'clock last night. I have already met, through the Labour Economic Employer Forum, LEEF, with both labour union leaders and business leaders.

The Labour Court is the mechanism through which the State gets involved and I was to see where that will go but I am happy for there to be a debate on Aer Lingus should the need arise.

With regard to Deputy Bacik, of course we can have a debate on local government any time but when someone becomes a Minister he or she does not lose his or her right to speak up and to speak out on issues. What the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins did, was entirely appropriate in terms of sharing the views of business representatives with the city council but being very clear in all of her public commentary, as am I in mine, that it is a matter for the city council to decide when best to do this. We all want to see improvements to traffic congestion and public transport and we want to see it done in a way that works. I saw some comments from Dublin City Council officials last night at what I think was their monthly meeting to that effect as well. A debate on broader local government issues will be, of course, always welcome.

I am not sure of the phrase Deputy Cian O'Callaghan used but there is no kicking the can down the road in terms of new housing targets. They will be announced in the autumn and the process is quite clear. Part one of it was the day with the ERSI publishing its helpful research about 12 different scenarios. Part two will be the draft national planning framework, which I know the Deputy will agree will be an important part to go with it. I expect that will go to Government next week and that will go to consultation over the summer. When we reconvene in the autumn, there will be an ability then, based on those two pieces of the information, for the Government to set out our housing targets for 2025 onwards.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I am happy to have a debate on the Housing Commission report because I have questions to ask him as well. I am not sure whether he supports all of the recommendations. I am not sure he supports the recommendations around supporting small landlords or the need for private financing as well. I am not sure there is any party in this House that supports every single one of the recommendations of the report though some wrap themselves in the executive summary of it. I look forward to getting into granular detail on this issue also. We can see-----

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